The great Willie Mays, RIP
Everyone gets old. There’s no way around that. But it’s particularly poignant when it’s a great athlete because we see them in our mind’s eye, always, in their youth.
Take Willie Mays, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93.
For many readers, he was before their time, but the man is defined by his youth. He came into baseball in the 1948 season, first with the Chattanooga Choo Choos, a minor league team in the Negro Leagues, and then with the Birmingham Barons of the Negro American League.
Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in 1947 though and more talented players, like Mays, would follow. He debuted for the New York Giants in 1951 and was an immediate sensation, winning Rookie of the Year.
Mays had everything - a great defender, a great hitter, great base runner and fast as anyone in the game.
He finished his career with 660 home runs, at the time second only to Babe Ruth. However, keep in mind that he spent one year with the Black Barons and missed 266 games when he served in the Korean War. Total that up to around 356, for argument’s sake, and he might have gotten a lot closer to Ruth than he ultimately did.
Mays was a spectacular talent but he is best remembered for one iconic play known simply as The Catch: in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Mays tracked down a ball in the outfield and simply ran under it, catching it without seeing where it was going to land. It was entirely by anticipation. He understood where the ball was and where it was going to come down, and he got his glove there to catch it. Then he had the presence of mind to turn and to throw to second. He later said first, that it “weren’t no lucky catch,” and second that he thought it was the key play in that year’s World Series.
Whatever else you say about it, it’s a dazzling bit of anticipation, intellect and athleticism all rolled up into a single play. Willie Mays was a baseball God. If there could be a real Field of Dreams, we’d like to think he’d be there to play forever.
